


I Spy

by fivethingsunmixed



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Het, tragic fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 14:41:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8376058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fivethingsunmixed/pseuds/fivethingsunmixed
Summary: Set while Laguna is bedridden in Winhill. Laguna gets easily bored, and needs some way to entertain himself and Ellone. Ellone has an idea; Raine may not be pleased by it, however...(Warning for canon character death.)





	

Laguna was not a man easily entertained on his own, Raine discovered. In fact, it would be easier to say that a hyperactive hippotatamus would be easier to amuse. It would certainly be easier to explain.

“Okay, Elle. Now: I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...F!”

“ _ Uncle Lag-ooooooooo-na _ !” came the childish whine that Raine was starting to dread. Every time Ellone called Laguna’s name in that way, it meant something dreadful was about to happen, and she would have to clean it up, “It’s floor,  _ again _ !”

“Well of  _ course _ it’s floor  _ again _ , Elle! There’s nothing else in this room except floor, and ceiling and walls and bed!”

Raine was just outside, mopping the floor, when she suddenly felt, rather than saw, the combined force of two stares. Looking up, she saw Laguna ( _ that damn soldier _ ) and Ellone ( _ sweet child _ ) and they were…

Dammit, they were  _ pouting  _ at her. In  _ unison _ .

“Fine!” she snapped, “I’ll get some flowers in.”

“Different types!” said Ellone, with all the sanctimoniousness of the young, “Otherwise, it’ll just be one more letter!”

“Well, really, it’ll be the  _ same _ letter…”

“Lag- _ ooooooooooo _ -na!” said Ellone, “You  _ have _ to use the right names for the flowers, you  _ have _ to!”

“Er, I’m not too good with flowers, Elle…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you, and so will Aunt Raine! Right, Aunt Raine?”

Raine was about to refuse, but Ellone looked so happy at the thought of teaching the battered soldier the names of all the flowers the florist sold that she caved.

“All right, Ellone,” Raine sighed.

\- - -

“Right,” said Raine fiercely, “So, do you think you remember the  _ names _ of everything?”

Laguna looked around at the flower-bedecked room.

“Uhhhhh...yeah? I hope so.”

“I do!” squeaked Ellone. “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with F!”

There was a pause as the two adults examined the room.

“Is it flower?” said Laguna dryly.

“Hey!” snapped Raine.

“Nope!” chirped Ellone.

“Is it...forsythia?”

“Nope!” she said.

“Is it floor?” said Laguna, still dry.

“Nope!” said Ellone.

“Are you implying Ellone doesn’t know the name of flowers?” snarled Raine. Laguna jumped, then winced as his body protested.

“No, no, no! Ow, ow, ow…”

Raine sighed, and leaned over to reapply his bandages.

“Neither of you guessed!” laughed Ellone.

“What was it?” said Raine, distracted by Laguna’s wounds.

“It was forget-me-not!” Ellone suddenly paused, in that strangely somber way she had, “You’re not...neither of you are gonna forget me, are you?”

Laguna and Raine both looked at Ellone, and then at each other, and despite how combative they sometimes were, in each other’s eyes they saw the same expression: an inability to communicate the sudden well of sorrow they each felt at a child even thinking to ask that.

Laguna stretched an arm out, and Ellone ran into his embrace. Raine began to slowly stroke Ellone’s hair, as tears dampened Laguna’s bandages.

“Never,” he whispered, “Not for as long as you live.”

-

“It’s Aunty Raine’s turn now!” chirped Ellone, lying on the bed. Her head was propped on Laguna’s chest, and his free hand was idly stroking her hair in much the same way he’d seen Raine do.

“I spy with my little eye...something beginning with A.”

“Aw, man, now it  _ has _ to be a flower species,” grumbled Laguna.

“You’ve had plenty of time to learn them, soldier boy,” snapped Raine. Ellone giggled.

“Is it acacia?” guessed Laguna, “I mean, they’re nice and prickly like you.”

Raine glared at him.

“ _ No _ ,” she said.

“Is it azalea?” guessed Ellone, pointing to the flower.

“Nope,” said Raine.

“Ambrosia?”

“Nope.”

“Aster?”

“Nope.”

Laguna suddenly pointed at a sprig of small, five-petalled flowers.

“Anemone?”

Raine smiled, impressed.

“Yup,” she said, “That’s the one.”

“Hey, I got one right!” Laguna high-fived with Ellone, and the two cheered and laughed...right up until his vision was obscured by green.

“For succeeding in finally  _ remembering _ the flower names, I crown thee Prince Laguna of the Flowers!” said Raine in a pompous voice. Reaching up, Laguna realized, annoyed, that she’d taken all the flowers he’d named (except for acacia) and made them into a crown to slap on his head while he laughed.

Before he could retort, however, she breezed out the room.

“...I guess I shouldn’t mention I only know the flowers starting with ‘a’, huh?” he muttered to Ellone, who laughed.

-

“Your turn, Laguna,” said Raine.

“Okay. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with...C.”

“Coreopsis!” said Ellone.

“Nope.” said Laguna.

“Cyclamen,” replied Raine.

“Uh-uh.”

“Carnation!” yelled Ellone.

“Yup!” Laguna gave Ellone a hug.

“But...which one?” asked Raine, indicating the vase that held the carnations, “They’re all different colors.”

“Does it matter?” asked Laguna.

“Well, yeah. A striped carnation means something totally different to a purple carnation.”

“Are you trynna tell me flowers  _ mean _ things, now?”

“Well, yes. If you’re a florist and you’re making a lover’s bouquet, you’d never  _ dream _ of using yellow carnation, for instance.”

Laguna stared at Raine briefly, before shrugging.

“Well, I’ve heard weirder things. For the record, it was the pink.”

“Oh!” Raine picked up the pink blossom.

“Is...something wrong? Does it mean something really nasty?”

“N-no. Just...no.” Raine took a deep breath, “I just wouldn’t have expected it from a soldier like  _ you _ .”

And with that she slammed out the room.

Laguna and Ellone both blinked at the shut door for a few minutes.

“Is Aunty Raine mad at you about something, Uncle Laguna?” asked Ellone.

“I...don’t think so,” said Laguna. “But I mean, I’ve always had a thing for difficult women.”

This did not help Ellone’s look of confusion.

-

“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with H!”

“You’re lisping again, Ellone,” said Raine from where she sat in the corner, mending a shirt of Laguna’s.

“Nooooooooo, that doesn’t start with an H!”

Laguna laughed at Ellone’s insistent voice. Raine had been chilly with him ever since the day with the pink carnation. Given he was almost ready to be discharged, he suspected part of the chilliness was her belief he would immediately leave.

Well. Raine clearly did not know Laguna Loire.

...Laguna was starting to suspect that he didn’t really know Laguna Loire either, but that was another matter entirely.

“Is it heather?”

“Nope!” said Ellone.

“Holly?” asked Raine.

“Nope!”

“Hyacinth?”

“YES!” yelled Ellone.

“ _ Ellone _ !” said Raine, “We do  _ not _ bellow in such a manner.”

Ellone ducked her head.

“Sorry, Aunty Raine.”

Raine relented, picking up a sprig of the purple flower.

“Come over here, Ellone.”

Laguna watched, fascinated, as Raine gently wove the sprig into a braid next to Ellone’s face.

“There,” said Raine, “Now you look like a princess.”

-

“I spy with my little eye...something beginning with M!”

Raine blinked at him, baffled.

“You’re not in bed,” she said.

“Well, no,” he replied. “But ‘bed’ also doesn’t start with an ‘m’, try again.”

“And you haven’t left town.”

Laguna sighed, pulling a chair up.

“I thought a lot about...Ellone. And you. I...want to repay you somehow. Even if it’s just clearing monsters out. And...I don’t want Ellone ever thinking I’ve forgotten her.”

But Laguna didn’t meet Raine’s eyes. And because he wasn’t looking at her face, he didn’t see the pale blush on her cheeks.

“So is ‘m’ for ‘monster-hunter’?”

“Well, uh...actually, it’s a cheat.”

From under his coat, Laguna produced a marigold, glowing vividly in the gloom.

“It’s the last of the flowers in the room to survive. I don’t know if, you know, flower language or anything but...I thought you should have it. As thanks.”

Raine accepted it, giving Laguna one of the first genuine smiles he’d seen.

Then, before his leg cramped, blushing furiously, Laguna fled the bar.

-

_ Years later… _

“Heh. I didn’t realize at the time what marigolds meant. You must have thought me a right fool,” he chuckled.

The sun was warm on his back, and the grass waved gently in the breeze, but his attention was solely on the small, rock headstone proclaiming the life of one Raine Loire, nee Leonheart. With a smile, he brushed his fingers over the stone, feeling the familiar grooves of her name wear into his fingers like a lover’s smile.

“I miss you, Raine. Our son is doing...well. Phenomenally well. I think he...I think he did badly for a little bit, but I think he’s back on track. That girl of his is helping. Who knows? Maybe one day he and I can...reconcile. Maybe.”

The stone suddenly became blurry; this stone, Elle and Squall were all he had left of Raine. But maybe he...maybe he needed to stop living here. In this moment of pain and regret.

With a hard swallow he stood, and turned to leave, when he heard a strange noise, an almost creaking sound.

Turning, he saw a plant sprouting from just beneath Raine’s headstone. As he watched it sprouted a long, oval leaf, and then a thin, delicate branch on which hung many tiny, bell-like flowers: a lily of the valley.

He smiled, feeling the tears drip down his cheeks.

“Thanks, Raine.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was started like over a year ago? Maybe even over two years ago, when I first did a replay of FFVIII, and my then-flatmate and I noticed that Raine mentions Laguna being bedridden because of all the broken bones he had, and we had a funny image of hyperactive Laguna trying to deal with being bedridden. I had the first part of the story, up to the insistence that Raine bring in flowers written...and then life interposed and I got interested in other stories (this may also be why you notice an abrupt style change).
> 
> I recently finished replaying FFVIII, and decided to finish this story off. And part of the reason the story took so long was because, yes, every flower in this story has a specific meaning and is assigned to a specific character *because* of it's specific meaning. If somebody gets excessively curious (or I just get bored one day) I may post all the meanings that I used.
> 
> I will give you one flower meaning for free, however: lily of the valley means "You've made my life complete".


End file.
